The grand opening of James Anderson's 24th season of English cricket has been delayed. On Tuesday, it was confirmed England's all-time leading wicket taker will miss the first month of Lancashire's County Championship season with a right calf issue.
At a time of year when pre-season optimism reaches fever pitch - Lancashire, in this instance, bolshy about their chances of returning to Division One following last year's relegation - news of Anderson's injury was a rare dampener. The neatness of a return to Lord's - site of his 188th and final Test last July, which also happens to be his last competitive match - to play Middlesex in the season opener will not be realised.
Damage to the calf - the same one that ruled him out of all but the first session of the 2019 Ashes - was sustained last week, on a pre-season trip to Desert Springs in Spain. It scuppered what had been an otherwise steady stint of training from the start of the year ahead of fulfilling his season-long deal.
"I reckon it's been about since Christmas, really," Anderson said at Lancashire's media day of his prep to date. "It's been a good block. I've been away a couple of times with England, but in between - it's only been 10 days or so that I've been away - it's mainly been here with the lads training. I feel great. My fitness is as good as it's been. My bowling's been good. I'm really excited."
That excitement is genuine. It was around this time last year that Anderson was called to a Manchester Hotel for the Goodfellas meeting where Rob Key, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes enforced retirement upon him. The time since involved a lot of introspection, especially after his Lord's swansong. What did he want from his immediate future? Inevitably, the answer was to keep playing.
His bowling consultant role with England might have also pushed him towards that decision. There is currently no agreement in place for Anderson to assist England this summer, having done so last year and at the Champions Trophy, partly through his choosing.
"I want to give playing a good go, so that's what I've told them," Anderson said. "I want to prioritise playing cricket for Lancs. If there's opportunities throughout the summer where they want me to come in and do stuff, we'll have to cross that bridge.
"It would be great to be part of an Ashes trip [later this year]. But if I'm not involved much this summer they might want to go in a different direction."
For all the talk of Anderson's value to the set-up and the wisdom of 704 Test wickets across 21 years at the very top, it was an awkward union. Just four days separated his emotional walk off into the sunset and reemerging in the shadows, taking the mitt at Trent Bridge for newly ex-team-mates. Less than a week between still believing he could do a job for England and fine-tuning his replacements.
The ad hoc nature of Anderson's role was characterised by his absence in the build-up to the first Test in Pakistan for a pre-arranged golf trip. Indeed, his main takeaway from that tour seems to have been stints bowling in the nets at Joe Root, which helped him preserve his skills.
Though the likes of Gus Atkinson, Josh Hull, and even long-time team-mate Chris Woakes, spoke glowingly of his advice from the sidelines, it was always an odd fit. One that would surely only grow odder with Anderson back playing again.
Would it dull his mentoring qualities? Perhaps not. But replicating the form he showed for his one-off appearance for Lancashire last season - taking 7 for 35 in the first innings against Nottinghamshire at Southport - would elicit tricky comparisons with those under his care. All being well, he should rout Division Two.
Focusing on a return to action, even if delayed by a month, has evidently narrowed Anderson's perspective. When asked if there had been reflections on his international retirement, his response was curt: "Not really, but I don't want to dwell on it." He insists he is not motivated on trying to prove England wrong. His desire to play as much cricket as he has left evident in the two unsuccessful draft attempts in the IPL and the Hundred.
"I'm not going to think about that," he reiterated on what England ambitions he may still harbour. "I think that ship's well on its way. All I can do is focus on the future and what my job is, which is to play cricket for Lancashire. I'm fully focused on that."
Anderson will not struggle for influence at Lancashire, looking to add to 376 wickets and just five first-class appearances away from a century for his boyhood county. The last time he was as available for this much of a Championship campaign was the summer of 2005, when he played 16 times while also featuring in England squads during that famous Ashes series.
Even his longevity brings novelty to the Emirates Old Trafford dressing room. The 42-year old has not only played international cricket with Rocky Flintoff's father, Andrew, but was also a Burnley CC team-mate of RP Singh, who played two ODIs for India and whose son, Harry, is in the Lancashire squad.
And yet, despite the lift he will bring his Lancashire team-mates, it is hard to escape the personal nature of this season, particularly when squaring the conflicts of Anderson's own ambitions. Proclaiming to be as fit as ever is contradicted by his calf, and the eyebrow-raising claim to the BBC that he would not rule out "playing for another one, two or three years" came not long before he conceded to the written media that this whole thing may be over much sooner.
"I could get a month in and think 'absolutely not'. But I could have a great year, we could win everything, and they might want to keep me next year so we'll just have to wait and see."
Who knows how long this intriguing final stanza of Anderson's career will last. Over the coming months, the rest of us will get a clear idea just how brightly a love of the game and its grind burns within him.
For the man himself, it feels more about control. Closure, even. Having had his Test retirement taken out of his hands, Anderson can still bow out on his own terms.